What To Do With The Snyder Cut Of ‘Justice League’

What To Do With The Snyder Cut Of ‘Justice League’

What To Do?

We all know The Movements famous saying: “Release The Snyder Cut“. But what happens if we don’t get that film any time soon? Then what? Do we stop showing support to anything Warner Bros. releases in the meantime?

From what I’ve seen from Shazam, I can tell you that you’ll be impressed with the homages that the film pays to all versions of Superman. And Batman. But also knowing they’re releasing The Kitchen, Joker, and Godzilla, it’s going to be hard to not enjoy those films.

I’ve seen fans claiming that any other version of The Snyder Cut of Justice League would be corrupt. What they fail to realize is this: Warner Bros. hasn’t mentioned ANYTHING about The Snyder Cut of Justice Leagueonce. Can you imagine the amount of outrage and discord that would come from fans? It wouldn’t matter if it was a graphic novel or animated film, fans would only be wanting the real film even more.

It’s Simple

But there’s a catch and it involves Pride. Fans would have to allow their pride to subside a bit. They would have to be ok with getting an incomplete of an incomplete. Sure, we know the film is finished. It’s just not complete with VFX and score. But what if there was a way to see The Snyder Cut get completed with VFX and Score? This is where things can get dicey.

We don’t know if Warner Bros. has a plan on releasing The Snyder Cut. But looking at all viable options still leads to the ultimate goal we’ve all been after. It’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. But in order to witness a rainbow, you need the rain. So let’s go down the possibilities that my good friend Stephen Colbert described over on Screen Rant. Maybe, just maybe, they all lead to the same exact situation we all want.

Chris Terrio’s Original Screenplay

If you don’t know, I detest Justice League. I truly mean that. When I tell you I couldn’t sleep the night I saw that film in theaters, you should know that I’m telling the truth. I remember staring up at the ceiling wondering how they could butcher that film so badly. But one of the things that really irked me was the horrible dialogue. Almost everything wrong in the film can be attributed to Joss Whedon. He single-handedly rewrote so much of Justice League, he was given a writer’s credit. In order to achieve that, you have to change 33% of the story as a minimum. A minimum. I can tell you for a fact, Whedon changed more than that.

So if Warner Bros. did actually pony up the real screenplay, it might look like a college dissertation compared to a fratboy’s 240 character tweet. Terrio is on record speaking about his Justice league script saying:

“This has been the most rigorous intellectual exercise I’ve had in my writing life. For Batman v Superman, I wanted to really dig into everything from ideas about American power to the structure of revenge tragedies to the huge canon of DC Comics to Amazon mythology. For Justice League, I could be reading in the same day about red- and blueshifts in physics, Diodorus of Sicily and his account of the war between Amazons and Atlanteans, or deep-sea biology and what kind of life plausibly might be in the Mariana Trench.”

The Dilemma

Can you image what reading that screenplay would actually be like? We’d get to imagine the closure of what we’ve been fighting for since November 17th, 2017. But, that brings up something else entirely. There’s no doubt in my mind that Terrio wrote a superior script to what Whedon contributed to. So releasing that would show just how incompetent Warner Bros. was in botching this entire situation. It would also only ignite fans clamoring for the actual film to grow in numbers. Reading what essentially was filmed, would be the biggest tease Warner Bros. could do in order to build anticipation for the eventual release. It wouldn’t solve any issues with what was supposed to come after, but at least fans could enjoy upcoming DC Films without the condition that Justice League would fix their issues with upcoming films.

The Snyder Cut In Graphic Novel

Knowing Snyder is a visual director, this option could be better than Terrio’s screenplay. Why? Warner Bros. could use the main dialogue from his screenplay as the script with Snyders storyboards being the template for the book. With Jim Lee and Zack Snyder being close, I’m sure the conversation has taken place a few times. I’m sure the Head of DC Entertainment would very much love to have the revenue that a graphic novel would generate.

The most popular graphic novels that DC has developed have either already been adapted in film form, or will be. So seeing that Snyders Justice League graphic novel would generate massive amounts of interest, why WOULDN’T they release The Snyder Cut? They would, in essence, have the entire series to gauge reception to it. Once that happens, they would have what they need to feel confident in releasing the newly polished Justice League. I’d actually take the film in its current form because I know artist would serve the characters justice by drawing better shots than what Whedon attempted. Want proof? Here are some storyboards I found that was drawn in June of 2017 by John Colebourn.

Superman Arrival Re-shoot Storyboard

Batmobile 3rd Act Re-shoot storyboard

Flash falling on Wonder Woman Re-shoot Storyboards

Animated Adaption Of The Snyder Cut

This one is simple. With Jay Oliva at the helm and using Terrio’s script, this would be the best way to view The Snyder Cut if Warner Bros. truly doesn’t release it. But wait, not so fast Barry. Most animated films clock in at 90 mins. With the rumored run time of 3 hours and 30 mins for The Snyder Cut, surely they wouldn’t cut that down, would they? Well, looking at that logistically, they would probably be spending more to create this type of movie than finishing Snyders film.

But, we are talking about the studio that released Justice League in its current form. I’d actually laugh if they spent more money on creating an animated version and it actually outsells the theatrical version of the real film. What do you think that would tell the execs only focusing on dollar signs? That people actually want to see Snyders version of Justice league? Maybe. But those same execs would also be looking at the success as a reason to release the real version of The Snyder Cut. Who wouldn’t want to see two versions of the actual film?

Releasing The Snyder Cut In Its Current Form

It’s no secret. The film as it stands isn’t sitting on some shelf collecting dust. VFX weren’t polished enough for the film to be fully realized. Add that the score wasn’t completed in its entirety, and we see what things might be missing. As we’ve seen from fans, taking out the Danny Elfman score and replacing it with thematic elements from the previous films is easy. Plus, this would have been Junkie’s 3rd time collaborating with Zack. I’m confident that he knew what he was going to create or at least had the general idea of the score. This was the only film he was working on besides Tomb Raider. He had time.

From what I know, some Pre-Viz scenes could serve as scene placement for the missing parts. For me, I could actually see the entire film in Pre-Viz form and just add my own musical score. At least then, I would see the real version of Steppenwolf and parademons. But again, let’s assume they release this version. How do they do it? Do they stream it? Do they distribute it with a physical Blu-Ray? Surely they have people who could look at the most viable route to take in gaining the most profit. But again, what happens if this version outsells the current “full” version that’s been on shelves since March of 2017? Would they then allow Snyder the option to complete the VFX and score? Would Snyder even want the current version out there for the viewing public?

What It All Leads To

Every single one of those ideas isn’t a concession to getting the film. Quite the contrary. It’s a stepping stone. Do you really anticipate that one of those options wouldn’t fan the flames of people wanting to see the film in its entirety? Don’t be childish. Adults don’t forget. Or at least, I know I wouldn’t. Seeing anything that wasn’t the film would be an injustice to what Zack created in the first place. He filmed the damn thing. It’s there. And every single one of these options is incomplete of the already incomplete film we got. It would rally the cause even more. That is, of course, if Zack wanted to release it at all.

Every single option Warner Bros. could, or should, do would only make releasing the actual Snyder Cut that much more palpable. Having any type of tangible object to physically show any hint of what Snyder created would only make fans want to see it even more. So before you consider “the loss” of anything NOT The Snyder Cut, remember that Warner Bros. hasn’t acknowledged it once. It’s not giving in at all or invalidating what Zack created. When they show that they’re serious, I don’t expect the fans to simmer down. So any kind of release would be the first step in seeing The Snyder Cut and all its glory. It’s the same for EVERY situation. It leads to Zack completing the film as he wanted; to an extent. Would anyone be against that?